Realtime communications and network browsing client

ABSTRACT

A graphical user interface is displayed. The graphical user interface includes at least one communication control for managing communications with other network nodes and at least one browser control for navigating to different network resource addresses. Human perceptible realtime output is generated from realtime communication data relating to a realtime communication session with at least one other client network node. In the process of generating of at least some of the human perceptible realtime output, operation of the client network node is managed based on at least one performance target. In the graphical user interface, a graphical representation of a network resource identified in connection with the browser control is displayed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), this application claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/449,059, filed Mar. 3, 2011, the entiretyof which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application relates to the following co-pending patentapplications, the entirety of each of which is incorporated herein byreference: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed Dec. 4,2009; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/418,243, filed Apr. 3, 2009;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/631,008, filed Dec. 4, 2009; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/631,026, filed Dec. 4, 2009; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/418,270, filed Apr. 3, 2009; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/825,512, filed Jun. 29, 2010; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/694,126, filed Jan. 26, 2010; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/209,812, filed Aug. 15, 2011; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/229,349, filed Sep. 9, 2011; and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/229,395, filed Sep. 9, 2011.

BACKGROUND

When face-to-face communications are not practical, people often rely onone or more technological solutions to meet their communications needs.Traditional telephony systems enable voice communications betweencallers. Instant messaging (also referred to as “chat”) communicationssystems enable users to communicate text messages in real time throughinstant message computer clients that are interconnected by an instantmessage server. Some instant messaging systems and interactive virtualreality communications systems allow users to be represented byuser-controllable graphical objects (referred to as “avatars”). What areneeded are improved systems and methods for realtime networkcommunications.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a network communicationsenvironment that includes a first client network node, one or more otherclient network nodes, and one or more server nodes.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of a client application.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of a client application.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example of a client application.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example of a method performed by anexample of a client application executing on a client network node.

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an example of a method that is implementedby an example of a realtime framework.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example of a stream handler that iscreated by an example of a realtime framework.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an example of a method that is implementedby an example of a realtime framework.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an example of a method that is implementedby an example of a realtime framework based on the monitoring of theprocessing of the at least one realtime data stream.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of an example of a method that is implementedby an example of a realtime framework.

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a network communicationsenvironment that includes a first client network node, another clientnetwork node, and one or more server nodes.

FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 15 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an example of a virtual environmentcreator and an example of a client network node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, like reference numbers are used toidentify like elements. Furthermore, the drawings are intended toillustrate major features of the described examples in a diagrammaticmanner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of actualexamples nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and are notdrawn to scale.

I. Definiiton of Terms

A “communicant” is a person who communicates or otherwise interacts withother persons over one or more network connections, where thecommunication or interaction may or may not occur in the context of avirtual area. A “user” is a communicant who is operating a particularnetwork node that defines a particular perspective for descriptivepurposes.

A “computer” is any machine, device, or apparatus that processes dataaccording to computer-readable instructions that are stored on acomputer-readable medium either temporarily or permanently. A “computeroperating system” is a software component of a computer system thatmanages and coordinates the performance of tasks and the sharing ofcomputing and hardware resources. A “software application” (alsoreferred to as software, an application, computer software, a computerapplication, a program, and a computer program) is a set of instructionsthat a computer can interpret and execute to perform one or morespecific tasks. A “data file” is a block of information that durablystores data for use by a software application.

The term “computer-readable medium” refers to any tangible,non-transitory medium capable storing information (e.g., instructionsand data) that is readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Storagedevices suitable for tangibly embodying such information include, butare not limited to, all forms of physical, non-transitorycomputer-readable memory, including, for example, semiconductor memorydevices, such as random access memory (RAM), EPROM, EEPROM, and Flashmemory devices, magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removablehard disks, magneto-optical disks, DVD-ROM/RAM, and CD-ROM/RAM.

A “window” is a visual area of a display that typically includes a userinterface. A window typically displays the output of a software processand typically enables a user to input commands or data for the softwareprocess. A window that has a parent is called a “child window.” A windowthat has no parent, or whose parent is the desktop window, is called a“top-level window.” A “desktop” is a system-defined window that paintsthe background of a graphical user interface (GUI) and serves as thebase for all windows displayed by all software processes.

A “data sink” (referred to herein simply as a “sink”) is any of a device(e.g., a computer), part of a device, or software that receives data.

A “data source” (referred to herein simply as a “source”) is any of adevice (e.g., a computer), part of a device, or software that originatesdata.

A “network node” (also referred to simply as a “node”) is a junction orconnection point in a communications network. Examples of network nodesinclude, but are not limited to, a terminal, a computer, and a networkswitch. A “server” network node is a host computer on a network thatresponds to requests for information or service. A “client network node”is a computer on a network that requests information or service from aserver.

A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a string of characters thatidentifies a network resource.

A “network resource” is anything that can be identified by a uniformresource identifier (URI) and accessed over a network, including anelectronic document, an image, a source of information, a service,operators and operands of a mathematical equation, classes, properties,numeric values, and a collection of other resources.

A “network connection” is a link between two communicating networknodes. A “connection handle” is a pointer or identifier (e.g., a uniformresource identifier (URI)) that can be used to establish a networkconnection with a network resource. A “network communication” caninclude any type of information (e.g., text, voice, audio, video,electronic mail message, data file, motion data stream, and data packet)that is transmitted or otherwise conveyed from one network node toanother network node over a network connection.

Synchronous conferencing refers to communications in which communicantsparticipate at the same time. Synchronous conferencing encompasses alltypes of networked collaboration technologies, including text chat,audio conferencing, video conferencing, file sharing, and file sharingtechnologies.

A “communicant interaction” is any type of direct or indirect action orinfluence between a communicant and another network entity, which mayinclude for example another communicant, a virtual area, or a networkservice. Examples of types of communicant communications includecommunicants communicating with each other in realtime, a communicantentering a virtual area, and a communicant requesting access to aresource from a network service.

“Presence” refers to the ability and willingness of a networked entity(e.g., a communicant, service, or device) to communicate, where suchwillingness affects the ability to detect and obtain information aboutthe state of the entity on a network and the ability to connect to theentity.

A “realtime data stream” is data that is structured and processed in acontinuous flow and is designed to be received with no delay or onlyimperceptible delay. Realtime data streams include digitalrepresentations of voice, video, user movements, facial expressions andother physical phenomena, as well as data within the computingenvironment that may benefit from rapid transmission, rapid execution,or both rapid transmission and rapid execution, including for example,avatar movement instructions, text chat, realtime data feeds (e.g.,sensor data, machine control instructions, transaction streams and stockquote information feeds), screen shares, and file transfers.

A “virtual area” (also referred to as an “area” or a “place”) is arepresentation of a computer-managed space or scene. Virtual areastypically are one-dimensional, two-dimensional, or three-dimensionalrepresentations; although in some examples a virtual area may correspondto a single point. Oftentimes, a virtual area is designed to simulate aphysical, real-world space. For example, using a traditional computermonitor, a virtual area may be visualized as a two-dimensional graphicof a three-dimensional computer-generated space. However, virtual areasdo not require an associated visualization. A virtual area typicallyrefers to an instance of a virtual area schema, where the schema definesthe structure and contents of a virtual area in terms of variables andthe instance defines the structure and contents of a virtual area interms of values that have been resolved from a particular context.

A “virtual area application” (also referred to as a “virtual areaspecification”) is a description of a virtual area that is used increating a virtual environment. The virtual area application typicallyincludes definitions of geometry, physics, and realtime switching rulesthat are associated with one or more zones of the virtual area.

A “virtual environment” is a representation of a computer-managed spacethat includes at least one virtual area and supports realtimecommunications between communicants.

A “zone” is a region of a virtual area that is associated with at leastone switching rule or governance rule. A “switching rule” is aninstruction that specifies a connection or disconnection of one or morerealtime data sources and one or more realtime data sinks subject to oneor more conditions precedent. A switching rule controls switching (e.g.,routing, connecting, and disconnecting) of realtime data streams betweennetwork nodes communicating in the context of a virtual area. Agovernance rule controls a communicant's access to a resource (e.g., anarea, a region of an area, or the contents of that area or region), thescope of that access, and follow-on consequences of that access (e.g., arequirement that audit records relating to that access must berecorded). A “renderable zone” is a zone that is associated with arespective visualization.

A “position” in a virtual area refers to a location of a point or anarea or a volume in the virtual area. A point typically is representedby a single set of one-dimensional, two-dimensional, orthree-dimensional coordinates (e.g., x, y, z) that define a spot in thevirtual area. An area typically is represented by the three-dimensionalcoordinates of three or more coplanar vertices that define a boundary ofa closed two-dimensional shape in the virtual area. A volume typicallyis represented by the three-dimensional coordinates of four or morenon-coplanar vertices that define a closed boundary of athree-dimensional shape in the virtual area.

A “spatial state” is an attribute that describes where a user haspresence in a virtual area. The spatial state attribute typically has arespective value (e.g., a zone_ID value) for each of the zones in whichthe user has presence.

A “communication state” is an attribute that describes a state of arespective communication channel over which a respective one of thecommunicants is configured to communicate.

As used herein, the term “includes” means includes but not limited to,the term “including” means including but not limited to. The term “basedon” means based at least in part on.

II. Realtime Communications and Network Browsing Client

The examples that are described herein include a realtime communicationsand web browsing client application with a graphical user interface thatprovides a single point of control for a user's realtime communicationsand network browsing experiences. Examples of the client applicationenable realtime communications in persistent virtual area locations thatcontextualize communicant interactions and index persistent records ofthose interactions. In some examples, the client application alsointegrates user preferences, profile information, navigation records,and contact information such that this information can be used acrossthe realtime communications and browsing interaction modalities. Thisfeature avoids the need for the user to keep separate sets of userinformation for each mode of interaction.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a network communications environment 10 thatincludes a client network node 12 (Client Node A), one or more otherclient network nodes 14, a web server network node 15, and a virtualenvironment creator 18 that are interconnected by a network 20.

The network 20 may include any of a local area network (LAN), ametropolitan area network (MAN), and a wide area network (WAN) (e.g.,the internet). The network 20 typically includes a number of differentcomputing platforms and transport facilities that support thetransmission of a wide variety of different media types (e.g., text,voice, audio, and video) between network nodes.

The first client network node 12 includes a computer-readable medium (or“memory”) 22, a processor 24, and input/output (I/O) hardware 26(including a display). The processor 24 executes a communicationsapplication 28 (also referred to herein as the “client application”)that is stored in the memory 22. Each of the other client network nodes14 typically is configured in substantially the same general way as theclient network node 12, with a memory storing a communicationsapplication, a processor, and input/output (I/O) hardware (including adisplay).

Each of the network nodes 12, 14 has a respective set of one or moresources and a respective set of one or more sinks. Each source is adevice or component that originates data of a particular data streamcontent type and each sink is a device or component that receives dataof a particular data stream content type. A source and a sink of thesame data stream content type are referred to herein as being“complementary.” Examples of sources include an audio source (e.g., anaudio capture device, such as a microphone), a video source (e.g., avideo capture device, such as a video camera), a chat source (e.g., atext capture device, such as a keyboard), a motion data source (e.g., apointing device, such as a computer mouse), and other sources (e.g.,file sharing source or a source of a customized real-time data stream).Examples of sinks include an audio sink (e.g., an audio renderingdevice, such as a speaker or headphones), a video sink (e.g., a videorendering device, such as a display monitor), a chat sink (e.g., a textrendering device, such as a display monitor), a motion data sink (e.g.,a movement rendering device, such as a display monitor), and other sinks(e.g., a printer for printing shared files, a device for renderingreal-time data streams different from those already described, orsoftware that processes real-time streams for analysis or customizeddisplay).

Each source has an active state in which the source is available fororiginating data and an inactive state in which the source is notavailable for originating data. Likewise, each sink has an active statein which the sink is available for receiving data and an inactive statein which the sink is not available for receiving data. The communicantsoperating the client nodes 12, 14 typically can control the states ofthe sources and sinks via controls provided by the communicationsapplications 28. For example, in some examples, the communicationsapplications 28 provide user controls for turning on/off the localmicrophones and the local speakers (e.g., headsets) on the clientnetwork nodes 12, 14.

The web server 15 delivers network resources in response to requestsfrom browser services (or functions) executing on the client networknodes 12, 14. The information resources commonly are hypertext documents(e.g., HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents), which may reference,for example, images, style sheets, and scripts (e.g., JavaScripts), andstreaming data (e.g., streaming audio data, streaming video data, otherstreaming information, such as realtime stock quotes and realtime alertsand other event information). The information resources typically aredelivered in accordance with the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

The virtual environment creator 18 includes at least one server networknode 40 that provides a network infrastructure service environment 42and hosts one or more server applications 44. Communicants respectivelyoperating from the client nodes 12, 14 connect to the serverapplications 44 through the communications applications 28. One or moreof the server applications 44 typically are synchronous conferencingserver applications that support one or more types of realtimecommunications between the client nodes 12, 14 (e.g., instant messaging,which includes text chat, audio conferencing, video conferencing, screensharing, and file sharing). The network infrastructure serviceenvironment 42 typically maintains a relationship database 46 thatcontains records 48 of interactions between communicants and socialnetwork profiles 50 that are associated with respective communicants.Each interaction record 48 describes the context of an interactionbetween a pair of communicants. Each social network profile 50 typicallyincludes: identity characteristics (e.g., name, age, gender, andgeographic location information such as postal mailing address) thatdescribe a respective communicant or a persona that is assumed by thecommunicant; explicit relationship information that is declared by thecommunicant; and relationship information that is inferred from thecommunicant's interactions in the network communication environment 10.

The communications applications 28 respectively operating on the clientnodes 12, 14 typically include software and hardware resources which,together with administrative policies, user preferences (includingpreferences regarding the exportation of the user's presence and theconnection of the user to server application and other users), and othersettings, define a local configuration that influences theadministration of realtime connections with other network nodes.

The network connections between network nodes may be arranged in avariety of different stream handling topologies, including apeer-to-peer architecture, a server-mediated architecture, and hybridarchitectures that combine aspects of peer-to-peer and server-mediatedarchitectures. Examples of topologies of these types are described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/923,629, filed Oct. 24, 2007, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/923,634, filed Oct. 24, 2007, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed Dec. 4, 2009.

In some examples, the one or more server network nodes 40 remotelymanage client communication sessions and remotely configure audio andgraphic rendering engines on the client network nodes 12, 14, as well asswitching of data streams by sending instructions (also referred to asdefinitions) from the remotely hosted server applications 44 to theclient network nodes in accordance with the stream transport protocoldescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/825,512, filed Jun. 29,2010, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed Dec. 4,2009. In some of these examples, the server node 40 sends to each of theclient nodes 12, 14 provisioning messages that configure the clientnodes 12, 14 to interconnect respective data streams between active onesof their complementary sources and sinks in accordance with switchingrules specified in the server applications 44.

The communications applications 28, the one or more server applications44, and the network infrastructure service environment 42 togetherprovide a platform (referred to herein as “the platform”) for managingcommunications between communicants operating the network nodes 12, 14.The platform tracks communicants' realtime availabilities and activitiesacross the different communication contexts that are defined by theserver applications 44. This information is presented to thecommunicants in the form of realtime visualizations that enable thecommunicants to make more informed network interaction decisions (e.g.,when to interact with a contact) and encourage the communicants toinitiate interactions with other communicants and to join contexts(e.g., an ongoing conversation between communicants) of which thecommunicants otherwise would not have been aware. In some examples, therealtime visualization includes visual cues indicating the presence andactivities of the communicants in the contexts of the serverapplications 44. The presentation of these visual cues typically dependson one or more of governance rules set by the server applications,administrative policies, and user preferences (including preferencesregarding the exportation of the user's presence and the connection ofthe user to areas and other users). In addition, the level of detail andinteractivity of the user may depend on whether or not the user is amember of and/or has a presence in a particular server application or ina particular zone of a server application.

FIG. 2 shows an example 160 of the client communications application 28that interfaces with audio 168, display 170, input 172, and networking174 components of the client network node 12 in the process ofconnecting the user to the other communicants 14 and network resources.The client communications application 160 includes a user interface 162,data stream processing 164, and a realtime framework 166.

The user interface 162 generates a graphical user interface thatprovides a single point of control for a user's realtime communicationsand web browsing experiences.

The data stream processing 164 routes and processes data streamsreceived by the client application 28 in connection with the user'srealtime communications and web browsing activities. These data streamsinclude time-critical data streams 163 and non-time-critical datastreams 165.

Time-critical realtime data streams are data streams that typicallyshould be delivered in a predictable and timely manner (e.g., an evenrate) in order to avoid significant degradation of the user'sexperience. Audio and realtime graphics (e.g., video) are examples ofsuch time-critical realtime data streams. These data streams typicallyare delivered over an unreliable transport protocol (e.g., UDP) in orderto reduce latency, which is a more importance factor because, in thecase of time-critical realtime data streams, dropped packets typicallyhave a much smaller impact on user experience than unpredictable oruntimely delivery.

Non-time-critical data streams are data streams that typically do nothave to be delivered in a predictable and timely in order to avoidsignificant degradation of the user's experience. Non-streaming webcontent, text chat, file sharing data, and screen share data areexamples of such non-time-critical realtime data streams. These streamstypically are delivered over a reliable transport protocol (e.g.,Transport Control Protocol (TCP), and the reliable STRAW protocoldescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/825,512, filed Jun. 29,2010) because the integrity of the content has a much greater impact onthe user's experience than predictability and timeliness of delivery.

Examples of the data stream processing 164 include audio and videostream processing that mixes and applies one or more effects to realtimeaudio and graphic data streams. Depending on the content type, theoutput of the data stream processing 164 may be stored on acomputer-readable medium or converted into a human-perceptible output bythe I/O hardware 26 operating on the client network nodes 12, 14. Forexample, audio output signals are converted into audible sounds by audiohardware (e.g., a sound card and speakers) and graphic output signalsare converted into visible images by graphic hardware (e.g., a videocard and a display). In some embodiments, the output that is produced bythe data stream processing 164 is processed by one or more downstreamsoftware components that in turn produce an output that either may bestored on a computer-readable medium or converted into ahuman-perceptible output.

As explained in detail below, the realtime framework 166 manages theoperation of the client network node based on a performance target inaccordance with a process for improving realtime performance of theclient network node.

FIG. 3 shows an example 176 of the client communications application 160that includes an audio stream service 182 that processes and mixes audiodata streams, a realtime scheduler 184 that manages the rendering ofrealtime data streams, and a stream transport service 186 that managessessions between the client network node and other network nodes. Insome embodiments, the audio stream service 182 and the realtimescheduler 184 are implemented by the corresponding components of therealtime kernel described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/630,973, filed Dec. 4, 2009, and the stream transport service 186 isimplemented by the stream transport service described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/825,512, filed Jun. 29, 2010.

The client communications application 160 also includes a user interfaceprocessing module 188 and a browser processing module 190. The userinterface processing module generates on the display 170 a graphicaluser interface that interfaces the user to the realtime communicationsand web browsing functionalities of the client application 176. Thebrowser processing module 190 provides a set of web browsing functions,including browser functions, document viewing functions, and datadownloading functions.

The client communications application 160 interfaces with resources thatare available on the client network node, including an operating system192, device drivers 194, and network protocols 196.

The operating system 192 hosts software applications by providing thebase operating system services for creating a run-time executionenvironment on the client network node. Among the exemplary types ofservices that typically are provided by the operating system areresource management, file management, security, authentication,verification, notification, and user interfaces (e.g., windowing, menus,dialogs, etc.).

The network protocols 148 control or enable the connection,communication, and transfer of data between the computer system 120 andother network nodes. Exemplary types of network protocols include theTransmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), the UserDatagram Protocol/Internet Protocol (UDP/IP), the realtime TransportProtocol (RTP), and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

The device drivers 146 typically are implemented by softwareapplications that enable other software applications (e.g., user-modesoftware applications, including the client application, and theoperating system) to interact with hardware devices that are connectedto the computer system 120. A device driver typically provides anapplication programming interface (API) for functions that can beinvoked by calls made by software processes in order to translatecommands and data that are transferred between the software processesand the hardware device.

FIG. 4 shows an example 197 of the client communications application 160that corresponds to the client application example 176 (FIG. 3), exceptthat instead of being integrated into the client application the browserprocessing functionality is implemented by a separate browser component198 that exposes an API 199 through which the application processingcomponents 200 may call methods that are available from the browsercomponent 198, including browsing methods, document viewing methods, anddata downloading methods. In some examples, the browser component 198 isa browser object that encapsulates the functionality of a browser (e.g.,the Internet Explorer™ browser, the Chrome™ browser, and the Safari™browser) and exposes its functionality through the API 199. In thisexample, the application processing component 200 uses the API 199 tocontrol and interact with the browser object. In these examples, theapplication processing component 200 defines a container for the browserobject that allows the browser object to receive user input from andrender hypertext data directly in the graphical user interface.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a method by which the client communicationsapplication 28 executing on a client network node 12, 14 provides asingle point of control for a user's realtime communications and networkbrowsing activities.

On a display, the client communications application 28 displays agraphical user interface comprising at least one communication controlfor managing communications with other network nodes and at least onebrowser control for navigating to different network resource addresses(FIG. 5, block 60). The client communications application 28, generatesthe graphical user interface in a window that is controlled (or owned)by the client communications application 28. The client communicationsapplication 28 generates human perceptible realtime output from realtimecommunication data relating to a realtime communication session with atleast one other client network node (FIG. 5, block 62). In someexamples, the human perceptible realtime output includes graphicalrealtime output, and the process of generating the human perceptiblerealtime output includes displaying the graphical realtime output in thegraphical user interface. In generating at least some of the humanperceptible realtime output, the client communications application 28manages operation of the client network node 12 based on at least oneperformance target. In the graphical user interface, the clientcommunications application 28 displays a graphical representation of anetwork resource identified in connection with the web browser control(FIG. 5, block 64).

The communication and browsing controls typically are responsive to userselections that are made using a local human input device (HID) (e.g., acomputer mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen display, a keyboard, and avideo game controller). Examples of communication controls include acontrol for toggling on and off the local speakers, a control fortoggling on and off the local microphone, a control for toggling on andoff the local video camera, a control to initiate a chat with a selectedcommunicant, and a control to invite another communicant to participatein a communication session. Examples of browsing controls include acontrol for navigating to a specified uniform resource identifier (URI)of a network resource, a control for traversing a navigation stack ofURIs, and a control for reloading a graphic representation of theinformation resource in the graphical user interface. Examples ofcontrols include command buttons, command items in a context menu, andcommand items in a toolbar dropdown list.

Examples of graphical realtime output include presence information, textchat, video conferencing, visual cues showing current communicationstates of the communicants who are present in a particular serverapplication 44, and realtime motion data streams describing movement ofcommunicant avatars. In some examples, the graphical realtime output isdisplayed in a communications panel of the graphical user interface, andthe graphical web content is displayed in a separate panel of thegraphical user interface.

The client communications application 28 may manage the operation of theclient network node in different ways, including managing the load onresources of the client network node 12, and managing the relativeamounts of available network resources that are allocated betweentime-critical data streams and non-time-critical data streams. In someexamples, the realtime framework 166 of the client communicationsapplication 28 modifies the processing of one or more data streams(which may be time-critical data streams, non-time-critical datastreams, or both) to reduce the current load on one or more of theresources (e.g., computational, memory, and networking resources) of theclient network node 12 and thereby increase the likelihood that theperformance target is met. In some of these examples, the performancetarget includes a time-based threshold on the production of a resultantdata stream (e.g., an audio stream or a video stream) that is renderedby the client network node 12 to produce the human perceptible realtimeoutput. In other examples, the client communications application 28manages the operation of the client network node by specifying one ormore resource requirements. For example, if the operating system of theclient network node is a realtime operation system, the clientcommunications application 28 may specify a quality of service level forone or more data stream content types in terms of respective ranges fordelay, jitter, and packet loss rate.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary graphical user interface 70 that is generatedby an example of the client communications application 28 in a window 59on a display of the client network node from which a user of the clientapplication (“Art” in this example) is operating. The graphical userinterface 70 includes a people panel 65, a viewer panel 66, a peopleinteraction toolbar 67, an audio interaction toolbar 68, and a set ofpanel view controls 69.

The people interaction toolbar 67 includes a Chat button 98 and anInvite button 102. Selection of the Chat button 98 opens a chat panel140 (see FIG. 4) that enables Art to initiate a chat with othercommunicants who are present in the area application where Art ispresent (i.e., Zone 1 in the illustrated example). Selection of theInvite button 102 opens an Invite window that enables Art to invite oneor more communicants to a selected virtual area location (e.g., an areaapplication or zone within that area application). Additional detailsregarding embodiments of the methods and functions invoked by the Chatbutton 98 and the Invite button 102 are described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009, and U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/373,914, filed Aug. 16, 2010.

The audio interaction toolbar 68 includes a headphone control 84 thatenables Art to toggle on and off the local speakers of the clientnetwork node, and a microphone control 86 that enables Art to toggle onand off the local microphone of the client network node.

The panel view controls 69 include a people panel button 71 for openingand closing the people panel 65, a chat panel button 73 for opening andclosing a chat panel (see FIG. 7), and a viewer panel button 75 foropening and closing the viewer panel 66.

The people panel 65 depicts the realtime availabilities and activitiesof some or all of Art's contacts across different communicationcontexts. In FIG. 6, the people panel 65 shows Art's communicantssegmented into two server application groups 72, 74 and a contacts group76. The server application groups 72, 74 correspond to each of theserver applications 44 of which Art is a member with respect to which atleast one of Art and Art's contacts is present. The contacts group 76contains all or a selected portion of Art's contacts that are notrepresented in any of the server application groups. The first serverapplication group 72 of communicants is contained within a section 78(labeled with a header bar entitled “Application 1”) that identifies allthe communicants who have a presence in the server application“Application 1”. The second server application group 74 of communicantsis contained within a section 80 (labeled with a header bar entitled“Application 2”) that identifies all the communicants who have apresence in the server application “Application 2”. The contacts group76 of communicants is contained within a section 82 (labeled with aheader bar entitled “Contacts”) that identifies all of Art's contactswho are not shown in any of the first and second server applicationgroups 72, 74 (i.e., they either are not members of or not present inany of Application 1 and Application 2).

In the example shown in FIG. 6, the server application sections 78, 80contain graphical representations (avatars) of the communicants(including at least one of Art or Art's contacts) who currently havepresence in the respective server applications 44, and the contactssection 82 contains graphical representations (avatars) of some or allof Art's contacts who currently are not present in or not members of anyof Application 1 and Application 2. In the illustrated example: Art andBeth are members of server Application 1; Art, Carl, Dan, and Ed aremembers of server Application 2; and Fran and Garth are not members ofserver Application 1 nor server Application 2.

Each communicant is represented graphically by a respective circularsprite that is labeled with a respective user name of the communicant(i.e., “Art,” “Beth,” “Carl,” “Dan,” “Ed,” “Fran,” and “Garth”). Eachsprite also may be associated with a respective status line thatincludes additional information about the communicant. In someembodiments, each status line can include one or more of the followinginformation: location of presence (e.g., a server application or a zoneof that sever application); availability (e.g., busy, idle); a statusmessage (e.g., “Out of the office next Wednesday”); and the name of theclient node from which the communicant is operating (e.g., “workstation1” or “mobile phone”). In some embodiments, the ordering of the spatialpositions (e.g., from top to bottom) of the communicant avatars in eachof the sections 78, 80, 82 is alphabetical by user name. In otherembodiments, the spatial positions of the communicant avatars in each ofthe server application sections 78, 80 are ordered in accordance withthe temporal ordering of the communicants in terms of the times when thecommunicants established their respective presences with the serverapplications. The spatial positions of the communicant avatars in thecontacts section 82 may be sorted alphabetically by user name, accordingto frequency of contact, according to recentness of contact, oraccording to other sorting or filtering criteria.

The activities of the communicants in the contexts of the serverapplications 44 may be inferred from the activities on the communicationchannels over which the respective communicants are configured tocommunicate. The activities on the communication channels are shown inthe graphical user interface 70 by visual cues that are depicted inassociation with the graphical representations of the communicants inthe sections 78, 80, 82. For example, the “on” or “off” state of acommunicant's local speaker channel is depicted by the presence orabsence of a headphones graphic 90 on the communicant's sprite. When thespeakers of the communicant who is represented by the sprite are on, theheadphones graphic 90 is present (see sprites Art, Carl, and Dan) and,when the communicant's speakers are off, the headphones graphic 90 isabsent (see sprites Beth and Ed). The “on” or “off” state of thecommunicant's microphone is depicted by the presence or absence of amicrophone graphic 92 on the communicant's sprite. When thecommunicant's microphone is on, the microphone graphic 92 is present(see sprite Dan); and, when the communicant's microphone is off, themicrophone graphic 92 is absent (see sprites Art, Beth, Carl, and Ed).The headphones graphic 90 and the microphone graphic 92 provide visualcues of the activity states of the communicant's sound playback andmicrophone devices. In addition, the current activity state of acommunicant's microphone channel is indicated by a dynamic visualizationthat lightens and darkens the communicant's avatar in realtime toreflect the presence or absence of audio data on the microphone channel.Thus, whether or not their local speakers are turned on, communicantscan determine when another communicant is speaking by the “blinking” ofthe coloration of that communicant's avatar. The activity state of acommunicant's text chat channel is depicted by the presence or absenceof the hand graphic 94 adjacent the communicant's sprite (see spriteBeth). Thus, when a communicant is transmitting text chat data toanother network node the hand graphic 94 is present, and when acommunicant is not transmitting text chat data the hand graphic 94 isnot present. In some embodiments, text chat data is transmitted onlywhen keyboard keys are depressed, in which case the visualization of thecommunicant's text channel appears as a flashing on and off of the handgraphic 94.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, members of a server application are ableto receive the visual cues of the communicant activities occurring inthe context of that server application whether or not the member ispresent. Thus, the graphical user interface 70 that is presented to Artshows visual cues indicating the communication channel states of thecommunicants present in Application 1 (where Art is present) and thecommunication channel activities of the communicants present inApplication 2 (where Art is not present).

Additional details regarding embodiments of the people panel 65 aredescribed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/373,914, filedAug. 16, 2010, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filedJan. 15, 2009.

The viewer panel 66 includes a navigation area 110 and a display area112.

The navigation area 110 includes forward and back buttons 114, alocation bar 116, a Go button 118, and a reload button 120. The forwardand back buttons 114 enable a user to traverse a navigation stack ofuniform resource identifier (URI) addresses (e.g., a linked list ofpreviously visited URLs). The location bar 116 allows a user to specifya URI address of an information resource, and the Go button 118 invokesone or more web browser functions on the client network node to navigateto the specified URI address and render the information resource at thespecified URI address in the display area 112. The reload button 120invokes one or more web browser functions on the client network node toreload the graphic representation of the information resource currentlydisplayed in the display area 112.

The display area 112 contains a rendered depiction of a network resourcelocated at the URI address specified in the navigation area 110. In theexample shown in FIG. 6, the viewer panel 66 is in the browser view modeand shows a rendered view of the network resource (a web page in thisexample) that is located at the URL https://www.sococo.com/home.php, asindicated in the location bar 116. In the illustrated example, thedisplay area 110 shows a web page that includes a header section 122, atop navigation bar 124, a side navigation bar 126, a contents section128, a notices section 130, and a navigation links section 132.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the graphical user interface 70 with the chatpanel 140 open. Activating the chat panel button 73 or the chat button98 opens the chat panel 140. When the chat panel button 73 is activated,the chat panel 140 opens to show a chat interface for a persistentvirtual chat area for interactions occurring in connection with arespective server application. In the example shown in FIG. 7, Artactivated the chat panel button 73 at the time he was present in serverApplication 1; therefore, the chat panel 140 shown in FIG. 7 containsthe persistent virtual chat area for text chat interactions occurring inconnection with server Application 1. When the chat button 98 isactivated, on the other hand, the chat panel 140 shows a chat interfacefor a persistent virtual chat area for interactions between Art and theone or more communicants who were selected at the time the chat button98 was selected.

The chat interface of the chat panel 140 includes a chat log area 142, atext box 144, and a Send button 146. The user may enter text messages inthe text box 144 and transmit the text messages to the othercommunicants who are in the same chat session by selecting the Sendbutton 146. The chat log area 142 displays a log of current andoptionally prior events that are associated with Application 1. Anexemplary set of events that may be displayed in the chat log area 142include: text messages that the user has exchanged with othercommunicants in Application 1; changes in the presence status ofcommunicants in Application 1; changes in the speaker and microphonesettings of the communicants in the Application 1; and the status of theprops (discussed below), including references to any applications anddata files that are shared in connection with the props. In theillustrated embodiments, the events are labeled by the communicant'sname followed by content associated with the event (e.g., a textmessage) or a description of the event.

The chat panel 140 provides a context for organizing the presentation ofthe events that are displayed in the chat log area 142. For example, inthe illustrated embodiment, each of the displayed events is labeled witha respective tag that visually correlates with the appearance of thesprite of the communicant that sourced the displayed event. Inparticular, each of the events that is sourced by a particular one ofthe communicants is labeled with a respective icon 148, 150, 152, 154having a visual appearance (e.g., color-code, or design pattern) thatmatches the visual appearance of that communicant's sprite. In thisexample, the color of the icons 148, 152 matches the color of the bodyof Art's sprite, and the color of the icon 150, 154 matches the color ofthe body of Beth's sprite.

The realtime framework improves realtime performance of the clientnetwork node in a variety of ways, including managing the load onresources of the client network node 12, and managing the relativeamounts of available network resources that are allocated betweentime-critical data streams and non-time-critical data streams.

In some examples, the realtime framework 166 (see, e.g., FIG. 2) managesthe load on resources of the client network node 12 by dynamicallyconfiguring one or more data stream processing components to reduce theamount of client node resources needed to process data streams (e.g.,time-critical data streams, such as audio and video), which may bereceived from another client network node 14, the server network node40, or the web server network node 15. By reducing the load on theresources of the client network node 12, the realtime framework 166increases the likelihood that time-critical realtime data streams (e.g.,audio and graphics) are rendered in a timely manner (e.g., at an evenframe rate).

In some of these examples, the realtime framework 166 configures streamprocessing components that process data streams received from othernetwork nodes. In response to stream handling instructions (which may bereceived from the server node 40 or from a component the clientapplication 28), various services and other components of the realtimeframework 166 cooperatively construct and configure directed graphs ofprocessing elements into stream processing components that are used toprocess data streams.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of a stream handling method that isimplemented by the realtime framework 166. In this method, the realtimeframework 166 receives one or more stream handling instructions thatinclude a specification of a stream handler for processing at least onerealtime data stream (FIG. 8, block 201). The realtime framework 166creates a stream handler in accordance with the stream handlerspecification (FIG. 8, block 202). The stream handler typically includesa mixing function that is specified in the one or more stream handlinginstructions. The mixing function is used to mix the realtime datastream with at least one other realtime data stream to produce a mixedrealtime data stream. In some examples, the realtime framework 166creates respective stream handlers of the type described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed Dec. 4, 2009, for receiving andprocessing the data streams. The realtime framework 166 produces aresultant data stream in a process that includes processing a realtimedata stream through the created stream handler (FIG. 8, block 204). Insome embodiments, this process involves determining configurationparameter values from realtime state information that is specified inthe one or more stream handling instructions, and dynamicallyconfiguring the stream handler with the specified configurationparameter values.

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a stream handler 206 that is created by astream handler configuration manager 208 (which is component of therealtime framework 166) in accordance with the received stream handlinginstructions 210. The stream handler configuration manager 208 typicallyis composed of one or more constituent services and other components ofthe realtime framework 166. The stream handler configuration manager 208constructs the stream handler 206 from a set of processing objects (alsoreferred to as processing graph elements or PGEs). Each of theprocessing objects is a software object that is capable of performing aparticular function on a data stream (e.g., a transformation function, asplitting function, and a mixing function). The stream handlerconfiguration manager 208 instantiates the processing objects that arespecified in the one or more stream handling instructions and assemblesthe instantiated processing objects into a directed graph component 212of the stream handler 206 in accordance with the specification. In someembodiments, the stream handling instructions specify the processingobjects with respective unique identifiers and the stream handlerconfiguration manager 208 instantiates the processing objects by issuingcalls that include respective ones of the identifiers to a processingobject API. The stream handler 206 is configured to process multipledata streams 214 of a particular data type (e.g., audio, video, ormotion data types) through respective processing chains 216-218, whichare composed of respective ones of the processing objects. The streamhandler 206 additionally includes a mixing object 220 (which wasspecified in the one or more stream handling instructions). Inoperation, the stream handler 206 executes the mixing object 220 toproduce a mixed realtime data stream 222 from a combination of theprocessed realtime data streams 216-218. In some embodiments, at leastone of the instantiated processing objects encapsulates a respectivecall to a driver module 224, which controls a hardware component of theclient network node based at least in part on the resultant data stream222.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a method of scheduling data streamprocessing tasks that is implemented by an example of the realtimeframework 166. In this method, the realtime framework 166 processes atleast one realtime data stream requested by one or more realtime dataprocessing operations to produce a resultant data stream (FIG. 10, block232). In some examples, the realtime data stream corresponds to an audioor video data stream produced by a session partner client network node14. In other examples, the realtime data stream corresponds to an audioor video data file (e.g., a YouTube™ video file) that is streamed from anetwork resource through the network browser component on the clientnetwork node 12. The realtime framework 166 monitors the processing ofthe at least one realtime data stream (FIG. 10, block 234). In responseto a determination that the processing of the at least one realtime datastream varies from a performance target, the realtime framework 166modifies the processing in accordance with a realtime performancetargeting routine (FIG. 10, block 236).

In some embodiments, the realtime framework 166 monitors one or more ofthe following parameters: the rate at which the resultant data stream isproduced; utilization of at least one processor of the local networknode; and bandwidth utilization by at least one networking resource ofthe local network node. In some embodiments, the realtime data stream ispacketized into frames and the realtime framework 166 monitors theprocessing of each of each of the frames during each of successive fixedlength intervals that are set in accordance with a local clock, whichtypically is synchronized with a remote master clock service. Based onthe monitoring, the realtime framework 166 determines whether or not theprocessing of the realtime data stream varies from a performance target.In some embodiments, the performance target includes a time-basedthreshold on the production of the resultant data stream. For example,in some embodiments, the performance target is a predicate (i.e.,condition) on the rate at which frames of the resultant data stream areproduced. Exemplary performance targets of this type include a targetthreshold and a target range.

FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of a method that is performed by therealtime framework 166 based on the monitoring of the processing of theat least one realtime data stream (FIG. 11, block 234). Based on adetermination that the processing of the at least one realtime datastream fails to satisfy the performance target (FIG. 11, block 238), therealtime framework 166 reduces that computational resource load to alower level (FIG. 11, block 240). Depending on the design of therealtime performance targeting routine, the realtime framework 166typically reduces the computational resource in one or more of thefollowing ways: the realtime framework 166 may omit the processing ofone or more portions of the realtime data stream (FIG. 11, block 242);the realtime framework 166 may omit one or more of the realtime dataprocessing operations (FIG. 11, block 244); and the realtime framework166 may replace at least one of the realtime data processing operationswith a different respective data processing operation (FIG. 11, block246). In the process of omitting the processing of one or more portionsof the realtime data stream (FIG. 11, block 242), the realtime framework166 typically performs at least one of the following operations:omitting one or more of the data processing operations that arecharacterized by respective performance values that are outside theperformance target; and preferentially omitting one or more of the dataprocessing operations based on priority values that are respectivelyassigned to ones of the data processing operations.

If the processing of the at least one realtime data stream satisfies theperformance target (FIG. 11, block 238) and the computational load hasbeen reduced to a lower level by any of the methods described above(FIG. 11, block 248), the realtime framework 166 increases thecomputational load from the lower level (FIG. 11, block 250). Therealtime framework 166 typically increases the computational resourceload by reversing one or more of the operations that were used to reducethe computational resource load in block 240 in accordance with aheuristic. If the processing of the at least one realtime data streamsatisfies the performance target (FIG. 11, block 238) and thecomputational load has not been reduced to a lower level by any of themethods described above (FIG. 11, block 248), the realtime framework 166maintains the current processing of the realtime data stream.

In some examples, a scheduler service component of the realtimeframework 166 manages processing of realtime data streams through streamhandlers and the dynamic configuration of the stream handlers.

The scheduler service typically renders audio and realtime video on aframe-by-frame basis. Initially, the streams are started, and then aftera delay the realtime scheduler service begins processing the firstframe. The delay is calibrated by the combined target latency for eachaudio and video processing chain. The realtime scheduler serviceinitiates consumption of the previously prepared frame and thenprocesses the next frame on a time Tick that has a fixed period (e.g.,50 milliseconds).

The final rendering objects in each chain are registered with therealtime scheduler service. The objects are derived from aSoFrameRenderer class, which has a method

FrameRender(timeFrameMs)

This method prepares one frame for the time indicated, from data sourcesthat are particular to the rendering chain (audio or video). TheSoFrameRenderer class includes another method

FrameDeliver( )

This method delivers the previously prepared frame to the finaldestination, which is particular to the rendering chain. SoFrameRendererobjects are not required to be able to buffer more than one completeframe. The realtime scheduler service uses the FrameDeliver method todeliver the previously prepared frame on schedule, and then callFrameRender to prepare the frame for the next interval.

In some embodiments, the realtime scheduler service is configured tocall one or more SoFrameRenderer classes, which include audioprocessors, graphical processors, physical modeling, and scripts. TheSoFrameRenderer classes enable the realtime scheduler service toreadjust frame processing in response to a determination that the clientnetwork node cannot keep up with the target processing level(performance target). In some embodiments, the realtime schedulerimplements one or more of the methods described above in connection withFIGS. 10 and 11. In some of these embodiments, the realtime schedulerservice measures the rendering time for all frames, and make statisticsavailable through an application programming interface. If thestatistics fall out of range (e.g., it takes too long to prepare aframe) then a log event is generated. A heuristic will be triggered, totry to “catch up”; for example by skipping a frame, droppingout-of-range rendering chains (which typically are out-of-range due to ahardware or network error), or by dropping lower-priority renderingchain(s). For the purpose of implementing priority-based scheduling, theSoFrameRenderer class defines the method:

FramePriority( )

This method returns a number, with lower numbers being most important.The heuristic can determine from the chains' latency and priority, whichchain(s) should be dropped to produce the most benefit with the leastimpact on total priority.

In some embodiments, the realtime scheduler service additionally is ableto drop stages within a chain. For this purpose, the realtime schedulerservice is able to call the method:

Latency=FramePrune(priority),

where the realtime scheduler is responsible for “dropping links” thatare lower than the indicated priority. The realtime scheduler servicecan start calling at the maximum priority and count backwards until allframes render within the desired total latency. A combined heuristic ofiteratively dropping low-priority chains and pruning the chainsthemselves typically terminates at some priority level. If the prioritylevel is below a threshold, a log entry can be made and, in some cases,the session is closed.

In some examples, the realtime framework manages the relative amounts ofavailable network resources that are allocated between time-criticaldata streams and non-time-critical data streams by dynamicallyinfluencing the allocation of available bandwidth between time-criticalrealtime data streams and non-time-critical data streams. Thetime-critical data streams typically are distinguished from thenon-critical data streams by content type. In some examples, realtimeaudio and video data streams are handled as time-critical data streams,and web browser, text chat, file share data, and screen share datastreams are handled as non-time-critical data streams.

In some examples, the realtime framework 166 is able to indirectlyincrease the availability of the client network node resources (e.g.,bandwidth) for delivering time-critical realtime data streams to theuser by delaying delivery of non-time-critical data streams (e.g., webbrowser data, text chat, file sharing data, and screen sharing data). Inthese examples, during a session with another network node, the realtimeframework 166 tracks a bandwidth metric for the connection with theother network node either directly (e.g., by determining current datarates for the connection) or indirectly (e.g., by monitoring the numberof dropped packets, which tends to increase when bandwidth is reduced).When the determined bandwidth metric varies from a performance target(e.g., drops below X bits per second, or the number of dropped packetsis greater than Y, where X and Y are configurable parameter values), therealtime framework 166 reduces the bandwidth that is effectivelyavailable for delivering non-time-critical data streams, increasing thebandwidth that is available for delivering time-critical data streams.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a method by which the realtime framework 166manages the relative amounts of available network resources that areallocated between time-critical data streams and non-time-critical datastreams.

In accordance with the method of FIG. 12, the realtime framework 166processes packets in a normal packet processing mode (FIG. 12, block252). In this mode of operation, a stream transport service of therealtime framework 166 transmits all messages immediately when queuedand there is socket buffer room. An example of the stream transportservice is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/825,512,filed Jun. 29, 2010.

The realtime framework 166 determines if any dropped packets have beendetected (FIG. 12, block 254). In some examples, dropped packets aredetected by comparing the values in the dropped packets count fields insequential StreamStats messages that are received from a session partnernode. Examples of session partner management methods and StreamStatsmessages are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/825,512,filed Jun. 29, 2010.

If any dropped packets are detected (FIG. 12, block 254), the realtimeframework 166 enters a packet throttling mode of operation (FIG. 12,block 256). In this mode of operation, the realtime framework 166 startsa cycle timer (e.g., a 60 millisecond timer) and resets a bandwidth (BW)budget for the current cycle (e.g., 40 kilobits over the cycle period)for the current cycle. If there is a time-critical packet queued to sendto the session partner (FIG. 12, block 260) and the current cyclebandwidth is sufficient to send the packet (FIG. 12, block 262), therealtime framework 166 sends the packet and reduces the current cyclebandwidth budget by the size of the packet sent (FIG. 12, block 264).(In other examples, the current cycle bandwidth budget is not reducedwhen time-critical packets are sent.) If there are no time-criticalpackets queued for delivery (FIG. 12, block 260), the realtime framework166 determines whether or not there is a non-time-critical packet tosend to the session partner (FIG. 12, block 266). If there is anon-time-critical packet queued to send to the session partner (FIG. 12,block 266) and the current cycle bandwidth is sufficient to send thepacket (FIG. 12, block 262), the realtime framework 166 sends the packetand reduces the current cycle bandwidth budget by the size of the packetsent (FIG. 12, block 264).

If the current cycle is complete (FIG. 12, block 268), the realtimeframework 166 accounts for dropped packets and adjusts the budget (FIG.12, block 269). If the current cycle is not complete, the realtimeframework 166 determines if any packets have been dropped since the lastdropped packets were detected (FIG. 12, block 270). If there are anynewly dropped packets, the realtime framework 166 reduces the cyclebandwidth budget (e.g., by 50%) and repeats the processing in thecurrent cycle (FIG. 12, block 272). If there are no newly droppedpackets, the realtime framework determines if the time since the lastnon-time-critical packet was sent exceeds a time threshold T (e.g., 1second) (FIG. 12, block 274). If the time since the lastnon-time-critical packet was sent exceeds the time threshold, therealtime framework 166 resumes processing packets in the normal packetprocessing mode (FIG. 12, block 252). Otherwise, the realtime framework166 repeats the processing in the current cycle.

In accordance with the method of FIG. 12, the rate at which packets areoffered to the network layer on the client network node is throttled toimprove the realtime performance for time-critical data streams. In somecases, the bandwidth throttling by this method may result in highercompression levels or dropped packets for time-critical data streamsduring times of network congestion. However, by delaying the delivery ofnon-time-critical data streams (e.g., screen share data, web browserdata, and administrative data streams), the bandwidth available fortime-critical data streams can be regularized (e.g., evened-out),thereby improving the user's overall experience of those data streams.

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic view of an embodiment 300 of the networkcommunication environment 10 (see FIG. 1) that includes a networkinfrastructure service environment 306 that manages sessions of thefirst and second client nodes 12, 14 in a virtual area 308 in accordancewith a virtual area-based server application 310 (referred to herein as“virtual area application”). The virtual area application 310 is hostedby the virtual area 308 and includes a description of the virtual area308. In some embodiments, the communications applications 28 establishrealtime data stream connections between the first and second clientnetwork nodes 12, 14 and other network nodes sharing the virtual area308 based on the positions of the communicants' avatars in the virtualarea 308.

The network infrastructure service environment 306 typically includesone or more network infrastructure services that cooperate with thecommunications applications 28 in the process of establishing andadministering network connections between the client nodes 12, 14 andother network nodes. The network infrastructure services may run on oneor more network nodes 304. The network infrastructure services typicallyrun on one or more dedicated network nodes (e.g., a server computer or anetwork device that performs one or more edge services, such as routingand switching). In some embodiments, however, one or more of the networkinfrastructure services run on at least one of the client network nodes.Among the network infrastructure services that are included in theexemplary embodiment of the network infrastructure service environment306 are an account service, a security service, an area service, arendezvous service, an interaction service, and a capabilities engine.

The area service typically administers a virtual area 308 by managingsessions of the first and second client nodes 12, 14 in the virtual area308 in accordance with the virtual area application 310. The areaservice remotely configures the communications applications 28 operatingon the first and second client network nodes 12, 14 in accordance withthe virtual area application 310 subject to a set of constraints 312.The constraints 312 typically include controls on access to the virtualarea. The access controls typically are based on one or more ofcapabilities (where access is granted to communicants or client nodeshaving proper capabilities or permissions) and an access control list(where access is granted to communicants or client nodes havingidentities that are on the list).

Examples of the virtual environment creator 302 and the virtual areaapplications 310 are described in U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/563,088, filed Nov. 23, 2011. Examples of an account service, asecurity service, an area service, a rendezvous service, and aninteraction service are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/630,973, filed Dec. 4, 2009. Examples of a capabilities engine aredescribed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/535,910, filedSep. 16, 2011.

The communications application 28 and the network infrastructure serviceenvironment 306 administer the realtime connections with network nodesin a communication context that is defined by an instance of a virtualarea 308. The virtual area instance may correspond to an abstract(non-geometric) virtual space that is defined with respect to abstractcoordinates. Alternatively, the virtual area instance may correspond toa visual virtual space that is defined with respect to one-, two- orthree-dimensional geometric coordinates that are associated with aparticular visualization. Abstract virtual areas may or may not beassociated with respective visualizations, whereas visual virtual areasare associated with respective visualizations.

The communications applications 28 operating on the first and secondclient network nodes 12, 14 present respective views of the virtual area308 in accordance with data received from the network infrastructureservice environment 306 and provide respective interfaces for receivingcommands from the communicants and providing a spatial interface thatenhances the realtime communications between the communicants. Thecommunicants typically are represented in the virtual area 308 byrespective avatars, which typically move about the virtual area 308 inresponse to commands that are input by the communicants at theirrespective network nodes. Each communicant's view of the virtual area308 typically is presented from the perspective of the communicant'savatar, which increases the level of immersion experienced by thecommunicant. Each communicant typically is able to view any part of thevirtual area 308 around his or her avatar, increasing the level ofimmersion that is experienced by the communicant.

A virtual area typically includes one or more zones that are associatedwith respective rules that govern the switching of realtime data streamsbetween the network nodes that are represented by the avatars in thevirtual area. The switching rules dictate how local connection processesexecuting on each of the network nodes establishes communications withthe other network nodes based on the locations of the communicants'avatars in the zones of the virtual area. A virtual area typically isdefined by a specification that includes a description of geometricelements of the virtual area and one or more rules, including switchingrules and governance rules. The switching rules govern realtime streamconnections between the network nodes. The governance rules control acommunicant's access to resources, such as the virtual area itself,regions with the virtual area, and objects within the virtual area. Insome embodiments, the geometric elements of the virtual area and theswitching rules are described in accordance with the COLLADA StreamsReference specification described in U.S. application Ser. Nos.11/923,629 and 11/923,634.

The geometric elements of a visual virtual area typically includephysical geometry and collision geometry of the virtual area. Thephysical geometry describes the shape of the virtual area. The physicalgeometry typically is formed from surfaces of triangles, quadrilaterals,or polygons. Colors and textures are mapped onto the physical geometryto create a more realistic appearance for the virtual area. Lightingeffects may be provided, for example, by painting lights onto the visualgeometry and modifying the texture, color, or intensity near the lights.The collision geometry describes invisible surfaces that determine theways in which objects can move in the virtual area. The collisiongeometry may coincide with the visual geometry, correspond to a simplerapproximation of the visual geometry, or relate to application-specificrequirements of a virtual area designer.

The switching rules typically include a description of conditions forconnecting sources and sinks of realtime data streams in terms ofpositions in the virtual area. Each rule typically includes attributesthat define the realtime data stream type to which the rule applies andthe location or locations in the virtual area where the rule applies. Insome embodiments, each of the rules optionally may include one or moreattributes that specify a required role of the source, a required roleof the sink, a priority level of the stream, and a requested streamhandling topology. In some embodiments, if there are no explicitswitching rules defined for a particular part of the virtual area, oneor more implicit or default switching rules may apply to that part ofthe virtual area. One exemplary default switching rule is a rule thatconnects every source to every compatible sink within an area, subjectto policy rules. Policy rules may apply globally to all connectionsbetween the client nodes or only to respective connections withindividual client nodes. An example of a policy rule is a proximitypolicy rule that only allows connections of sources with compatiblesinks that are associated with respective objects that are within aprescribed distance (or radius) of each other in the virtual area.

In some embodiments, governance rules are associated with a virtual areato control who has access to the virtual area, who has access to itscontents, what is the scope of that access to the contents of thevirtual area (e.g., what can a user do with the contents), and what arethe follow-on consequences of accessing those contents (e.g., recordkeeping, such as audit logs, and payment requirements). In someembodiments, an entire virtual area or a zone of the virtual area isassociated with a “governance mesh.” In some embodiments, a governancemesh is implemented in a way that is analogous to the implementation ofthe zone mesh described in U.S. application Ser. Nos. 11/923,629 and11/923,634. A governance mesh enables a software application developerto associate governance rules with a virtual area or a zone of a virtualarea. This avoids the need for the creation of individual permissionsfor every file in a virtual area and avoids the need to deal with thecomplexity that potentially could arise when there is a need to treatthe same document differently depending on the context.

In some embodiments, a virtual area is associated with a governance meshthat associates one or more zones of the virtual area with a digitalrights management (DRM) function. The DRM function controls access toone or more of the virtual area or one or more zones within the virtualarea or objects within the virtual area. The DRM function is triggeredevery time a communicant crosses a governance mesh boundary within thevirtual area. The DRM function determines whether the triggering actionis permitted and, if so, what is the scope of the permitted action,whether payment is needed, and whether audit records need to begenerated. In an exemplary implementation of a virtual area, theassociated governance mesh is configured such that if a communicant isable to enter the virtual area he or she is able to perform actions onall the documents that are associated with the virtual area, includingmanipulating the documents, viewing the documents, downloading thedocuments, deleting the documents, modifying the documents andre-uploading the documents. In this way, the virtual area can become arepository for information that was shared and discussed in the contextdefined by the virtual area.

Additional details regarding the specification of a virtual area aredescribed in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/418,243 (which was filed onApr. 3, 2009), Ser. No. 11/923,629 (which was filed on Oct. 24, 2007),and Ser. No. 11/923,634 (which was filed on Oct. 24, 2007).

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary graphical user interface 370 that correspondsto the graphical user interface 70 (see FIG. 6), except that serverapplication spaces 72, 74 correspond to virtual areas 372, 374 that areassociated with respective spatial visualizations.

In addition to the control and panel elements of the graphical userinterface 70 (e.g., the people panel 65, the viewer panel 66, the peopleinteraction toolbar 67, the audio interaction toolbar 68, and the panelview controls 71, 73, 75), the graphical user interface 370 includes aShare button 375 and a set 373 of Viewer Panel control buttons,including a Map button 376, a Browse button 378, and four View Screenbuttons 380-386. The Share button 375 initiates a screen share of thecontents of the display area 112 of the viewer panel in connection witha view screen object in a virtual area with one or more othercommunicants who are present in the virtual area. These contentsinclude, for example, a web page or other network resource informationthat is received from the address identified in the location bar 116 bythe browser component of the client application, and an application thatis rendering contents (e.g., a document) on the user's display. The Mapbutton 376 sets the view presented in the viewer panel 66 to a map viewof the virtual area. The Browse button 378 sets the view presented inthe viewer panel 66 to a web browser view. Each of the four View Screenbuttons 380-386 sets the view presented in the viewer panel 66 to thecontent being shared in connection with a respective one of the viewscreens in the virtual area.

In the example shown in FIG. 14, the viewer panel 66 is in the webbrowser view mode and shows a rendered view of the information resource(a web page in this example) that is located at the URLhttps://www.sococo.com/home.php, as indicated in the location bar 116.

FIG. 15 shows an example of the graphical user interface 370 in the Mapview mode presenting in the viewer panel 66 a rendered view of anexample of a zone (Zone 1) that is located at the locationSococoHQ/Zone1, as indicated in the location bar 116. This addressindicates that Zone1 is a zone within the virtual area SococoHQ.

Each of the communicants present in the virtual area is representedgraphically by a respective avatar that corresponds to the communicant'savatar that is shown in the people panel 65. The virtual area isrepresented graphically by a two-dimensional top view of a rectangularspace. In the illustrated example, when the communicants initially entera zone of the virtual area, their sprites automatically are positionedin predetermined locations (or “seats”) in the zone.

Zone 1 includes four view screen props 388, 390, 392, 394 and a tableprop 396. Communicants interact with the props by selecting them with aninput device (e.g., by double-clicking on the props with a computermouse, touch pad, touch screen, or the like). The view screen props388-394 are associated with application sharing functionality of theplatform that enables communicants to share applications operating ontheir respective client network nodes. The application sharingfunctionality is invoked by activation of the Share button 375. In someembodiments, the platform provides visual cues that indicate whether ornot a communicant is sharing an application over an application sharingchannel. In response to a communicant's selection of a view screen prop,the communicant's sprite automatically is moved to a position in thegraphical representation of the zone that is adjacent the view screenprop. The position of a communicant's sprite adjacent the view screenprop indicates that the communicant currently is sharing or is about toshare an application with the other communicants in the virtual area. Inaddition, the avatar of each communicant who is sharing an applicationor receiving a shared application is depicted with a pair of “eyes” toindicate that the represented communicants are viewing the content beingshared in connection with the view screen props (see, e.g., the avatarsof Dan and Beth). The graphical depiction of view screen prop is changeddepending on whether or not an active application sharing session isoccurring. For example, the depicted color of the view screen may changefrom light during an active application sharing session to dark whenthere is no application sharing taking place. Examples of theapplication sharing process are described in connection with FIGS. 26-28of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009, andin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/418,270, filed Apr. 3, 2009.

The table prop 396 is associated with file share functionality of theplatform that enables communicants to upload computer data files toserver storage in association with the virtual area and to download datafiles that are associated with the virtual area from the server storageto the respective client network nodes. In example shown in FIG. 15,there are two document objects 398, 400 that are associated with thetable prop 396. The document objects 398, 400 are linked to respectivedocuments that are have been shared in the virtual area and stored inserver storage. Any of the document objects 398, 400 may be selected bya communicant (e.g., by double-clicking the document object 190 with aninput device, such as a computer mouse) to initiate downloading of theassociated document to the communicant's client network node. Additionaldetails regarding the structure, function, and operation of the tableprop 396 may be obtained from U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009.

In the Map view mode shown in FIG. 15, the navigational controls of thegraphical user interface 370 allow the user to traverse a path throughthe virtual environment in accordance with a navigational model that istied to the underlying spatial hierarchy of virtual area locations andobjects (e.g., props) within the locations. The network infrastructureservice environment records the path traversed by the user. In someembodiments, the network infrastructure service environment records ahistory that includes a temporally ordered list of views of the virtualarea locations that are presented to the user as the user navigatesthrough the virtual area. Each view typically corresponds to a view of arespective renderable zone of the virtual area. In these embodiments,the navigation controls enable the user to move to selected ones of thezones in the history. The navigation controls also include a graphicalrepresentation of a depth path that shows the location in the spatialhierarchy that corresponds to the user's current view of the virtualarea. In some embodiments, the graphical representation of the depthpath includes a respective user-selectable link to a respective view ofeach of the preceding levels in the spatial hierarchical model of thevirtual area above the current view. The back button 369 corresponds toa backward control that enables the user to incrementally move backwardto preceding ones of the zones in the history of the zones that weretraversed by the user. The forward button 371 corresponds to a forwardcontrol that enables the user to incrementally move forward tosuccessive ones of the zones in the history of the zones that weretraversed by the user. Some examples additionally include a placemarksbutton that activates a placemarking control for storing links to zonesand a placemark navigation control for viewing a list of links topreviously placemarked zones. In response to user selection of theplacemarking control, a placemark is created by storing an image of thelocation shown in the current view in association with a hyperlink tothe corresponding location in the virtual area. In response to a userselection of the placemark navigation control, a placemarks window ispresented to the user. The placemarks window includes livevisualizations of all locations that have been placemarked by the user.Each of the images in the placemarks window is associated with arespective user-selectable hyperlink. In response to user selection ofone of the hyperlinks in the placemarks window, a view of the virtualarea corresponding to the location associated with the selectedhyperlink is automatically displayed in the browsing area of thegraphical user interface 370. Some examples include home buttoncorresponds to a control that returns the user to a view of a designated“home” location in the virtual environment. Additional details regardingthe structure, function, and operation of examples of the navigationcontrols are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709,filed Jan. 15, 2009.

FIG. 16 shows an example of the graphical user interface 370 when thepeople panel 65, a chat panel 402, and the viewer panel 66 are open. Thechat panel 402 corresponds to the chat panel 140 (see FIG. 7), exceptthat in addition to showing the chat log area 142, the text box 144, andthe Send button 146, the chat panel 402 includes a minimap view of thecurrent zone (Zone 1) in which the user is present. In this example, theuser may enter text messages in the text box 144 and activate the Sendbutton 146 to transmit the text messages to the communicationsapplications of other communicants who are present in Zone 1.

In some examples, the client communications application 28 integratesuser preferences, profile information, navigation marks, and contactinformation such that this information can be used across the realtimecommunications, network browsing (e.g., web browsing), and virtuallocation browsing interaction modalities.

FIG. 17 shows an embodiment 500 of the virtual environment creator 302that provides a virtual area based realtime communications environmentfor client network nodes, including an example 530 of the client networknode 12.

The virtual environment creator 500 includes two different virtualarea-based server applications 502, 504 (Area Application 1 and AreaApplication 2). Each area application 502, 504 is associated with arespective member list 510, 512. The area-based server applications 502,504 are administered by respective instances 506, 508 of the areaservice.

The area service instances 506, 508 cooperate with the rendezvousservice 514 and other services of the network infrastructure serviceenvironment 306 to create different respective virtual areas forrealtime communications between communicants. In some embodiments, thearea service manages network connections that are associated with thevirtual areas subject to the capabilities of the requesting entities,maintains global state information for the virtual area, and serves as adata server for the client network nodes participating in a sharedcommunication session in a context defined by the virtual areas. Theglobal state information includes a list of all the objects that are inthe virtual area and their respective locations in the virtual area. Thearea service sends instructions that configure the client network nodes.The area service also registers and transmits initialization informationto other client network nodes that request to join the communicationsession. In this process, the area service may transmit to each joiningclient network node a list of components (e.g., plugins) that are neededto render the virtual area 308 on the client network node in accordancewith the virtual area application 310. The area service also ensuresthat the client network nodes can synchronize to a global state if acommunications fault occurs. The area service typically managescommunicant interactions with virtual areas via governance rules thatare associated with the virtual areas.

The rendezvous service 514 maintains the relationship database 46, themember lists 510, 512, and manages the collection, storage, anddistribution of presence information and provides mechanisms for networknodes to communicate with one another (e.g., by managing thedistribution of connection handles 516) subject to the capabilities ofthe requesting entities. The rendezvous service 514 typically stores thepresence information in a presence database 518. The rendezvous service514 typically manages communicant interactions with each other viacommunicant privacy preferences 520.

The client network node 530 includes an example 532 of the clientcommunications application 160 that includes an example 534 of therealtime framework 166. In some examples, the client communicationsapplication 160 maintains for each user of the client network node 530records that are stored in an account data file 536 and a places datafile 538, which may be implemented by separate data files (e.g.,extensible markup language (XML) documents) or integrated into a singledata file. For each user, the account data file 536 integrates accountinformation across different communication modalities, including instantmessaging login information, virtual area service login information, andweb site login information. For each user, the places data file 538integrates navigation related information (e.g., navigation history anduser designated favorite places) across different communicationmodalities, including web browser cookies, URI bookmarks for webaddresses to which the user browsed via the integrated network browsercomponents of the client application 532, and virtual area placemarksfor virtual area locations in the virtual area environment to which theuser browsed via the integrated virtual area navigation components ofthe client application 532. By automatically managing the account andplace information across the different communication modalities, theclient application 532 avoids the need for the user to keep separatesets of user information for each mode of interaction, which would berequired if separate applications were used for each communicationmodality.

In other examples, the virtual environment creator 500 maintains theaccount data file 536 and the places data file 538 for each user.

Other examples are within the scope of the claims.

1. A method performed by a client network node executing a clientapplication integrating web browsing and network data stream processingfor realtime communications, the method comprising: navigating to anaddress of a web page to establish a presence for a first user of afirst client network in a virtual area hosted by a server network nodeexecuting a server application comprising a specification of the virtualarea and one or more switching rules specifying one or more respectiveconnections or disconnections of one or more data sources and one ormore data sinks of client network nodes of users who are present in thevirtual area; based on the established presence for the first user,automatically establishing a communications connection with a secondnetwork node of a second user who is present in the virtual area;transmitting outgoing data streams to and receiving incoming datastreams from the second client network node over the communicationsconnection, wherein the incoming and outgoing data streams comprise oneor more time-critical types of data streams and one or morenon-time-critical types of data streams; processing the one or moretime-critical types of data streams and the one or morenon-time-critical types of data streams; monitoring at least one metriccharacterizing transmission of one or more data streams over thecommunications connection with the other client network node; and basedon a determination that the at least one metric fails to satisfy atleast one performance target, throttling a rate at which packets of atleast one of the time-critical types of data streams and thenon-time-critical types data streams are provided to a network layer ofthe first client network node.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinmonitoring the at least one metric comprises monitoring a bandwidthmetric corresponding to a measure of bandwidth.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein the monitoring comprises determining a value of the bandwidthmetric based on data rates over the communications connection.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein the performance target is a threshold datarate.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the monitoring comprisesdetermining a value of the bandwidth metric based on a count of droppedpackets.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein the performance target ismaximum number of dropped packets.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunications connection between the first and second client networknodes is a peer-to-peer communications connection.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising adjusting the processing based on adetermination that the at least one metric fails to satisfy at least oneoperational performance target.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein theadjusting comprises increasing a level of compression applied to atleast one of the time-critical types of data streams and thenon-time-critical types data streams.
 10. The method of claim 8, whereinthe adjusting comprises decreasing a data rate at least one of thetime-critical types of data streams and the non-time-critical types datastreams.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein throttling comprisesinitiating a packet throttling operational mode comprising: starting acurrent cycle with an initial bandwidth budget; on condition that thereis a time-critical packet currently queued to transmit and there issufficient bandwidth budget available in the current cycle, transmittingthe time-critical packet and reducing the bandwidth budget for thecurrent cycle by an amount corresponding the transmitted packet; and, oncondition that no time-critical packet currently is queued to send,there is a non-time-critical packet queued to send, and there issufficient bandwidth budget available in the current cycle, sending thenon-time-critical packet and reducing the bandwidth budget for thecurrent cycle by an amount corresponding to the sent packet.
 12. Acomputer-readable data storage apparatus comprising a memory componentstoring executable instructions that are operable to be executed by aprocessor integrating web browsing and network data stream processingfor realtime communications, wherein the memory component comprises:executable instructions to navigate to an address of a web page toestablish a presence for a first user of a first client network in avirtual area hosted by a server network node executing a serverapplication comprising a specification of the virtual area and one ormore switching rules specifying one or more respective connections ordisconnections of one or more data sources and one or more data sinks ofclient network nodes of users who are present in the virtual area;executable instructions to, based on the established presence for thefirst user, automatically establish a communications connection with asecond network node of a second user who is present in the virtual area;executable instructions to transmit outgoing data streams to and receiveincoming data streams from the second client network node over thecommunications connection, wherein the incoming and outgoing datastreams comprise one or more time-critical types of data streams and oneor more non-time-critical types of data streams; executable instructionsto process the one or more time-critical types of data streams and theone or more non-time-critical types of data streams; executableinstructions to monitor at least one metric characterizing transmissionof one or more data streams over the communications connection with theother client network node; and executable instructions to, based on adetermination that the at least one metric fails to satisfy at least oneperformance target, throttle a rate at which packets of at least one ofthe time-critical types of data streams and the non-time-critical typesdata streams are provided to a network layer of the first client networknode.
 13. The computer-readable data storage apparatus of claim 12,further comprising executable instructions to determine a value of thebandwidth metric based on data rates over the communications connection,and wherein the performance target is a threshold data rate.
 14. Thecomputer-readable data storage apparatus of claim 12, further comprisingexecutable instructions to determine a value of the bandwidth metricbased on a count of dropped packets, and wherein the performance targetis maximum number of dropped packets.
 15. The computer-readable datastorage apparatus of claim 12, further comprising executableinstructions to adjust the processing based on a determination that theat least one metric fails to satisfy at least one operationalperformance target.
 16. A system, comprising a communication interfacearranged to: navigate to an address of a web page to establish apresence for a first user of a first client network in a virtual areahosted by a server network node executing a server applicationcomprising a specification of the virtual area and one or more switchingrules specifying one or more respective connections or disconnections ofone or more data sources and one or more data sinks of client networknodes of users who are present in the virtual area; based on theestablished presence for the first user, automatically establish acommunications connection with a second network node of a second userwho is present in the virtual area; transmit outgoing data streams toand receiving incoming data streams from the second client network nodeover the communications connection, wherein the incoming and outgoingdata streams comprise one or more time-critical types of data streamsand one or more non-time-critical types of data streams; a processorarranged to: process the one or more time-critical types of data streamsand the one or more non-time-critical types of data streams; monitor atleast one metric characterizing transmission of one or more data streamsover the communications connection with the other client network node;and based on a determination that the at least one metric fails tosatisfy at least one performance target, throttle a rate at whichpackets of at least one of the time-critical types of data streams andthe non-time-critical types data streams are provided to a network layerof the first client network node.
 17. The system of claim 16, whereinthe processor is arranged to determine a value of the bandwidth metricbased on data rates over the communications connection, and theperformance target is a threshold data rate.
 18. The system of claim 16,wherein the processor is arranged to determine a value of the bandwidthmetric based on a count of dropped packets, and the performance targetis maximum number of dropped packets.
 19. The system of claim 16,wherein the processor is further arranged to adjust the processing basedon a determination that the at least one metric fails to satisfy atleast one operational performance target.